About

Kelly Archer was born with an urgency to create and to express herself through performance and movement. She began dancing at a young age, becoming serious about her training when her family moved to Southern California. She began her professional career while still in high school and after graduation was chosen to be part of the Edge Performing Arts Center’s scholarship program, which gave her the opportunity to study and perform movement with some of the most innovative choreographers in Los Angeles. Ms. Archer attended the University of Northern Colorado, where she was awarded both arts and academic scholarships, and earned a degree in theater with an emphasis in directing and a minor in dance. While there, she was able to continue her professional career as well as being invited to choreograph for the University’s touring dance troupe. During this time, she also had her choreography selected for the New Visions Dance Festival.

She has won numerous awards for her choreography throughout the years. Most recently, her work has been seen at Jacob’s Pillow, the McCallum Theatre’s Choreography Festival in Palm Desert, the Tanzsommer Festival in Austria, and Synthesis: A Collaboration of the Visual and Performing Arts. She has co-directed iMPACT Dance Company, a non-profit, pre-professional program based in Northern California. She also co-directed the Pre-Professional and Ambassador divisions at Northern California Dance Conservatory, since it’s opening in 2006 until she recently re-located to Colorado. In In 2011, she created and became the Artistic Director for Synthesis, a bi-annual event that celebrates collaborations between visual artists, dancers, choreographers, and musicians. She has directed and choreographed for Double Feature ballets from 2008-2014 for NCDC, all performed in Northern California.

Ms. Archer’s students have gone on to dance professionally with some of the most prestigious companies in the world. Her students can be seen dancing with the Cullberg Ballet, Ballethagen, Nanine Linning & Co, Ballet Eugene, the Rockettes, and the National Tour of Wicked, to name a few. Her students have received numerous scholarships and awards and have continued their studies at prestigious programs such as The Julliard School, London School of Contemporary Dance, Staatliche Balletschule Berlin, ArnemHogeschool in the Nederlands, NYU, Boston Conservatory, SUNY Purchase, Butler University, University of Arizona, SMU, and Oklahoma City University.

During her career as a choreographer, dance educator, and director she has become known for her unique ability to combine her skill and training in dance and theater in order to craft work that tells a story; cuts clean through and ultimately has something to say which perhaps could not be expressed in words. Her choreography explores themes of longing, hope, liberation, wonder, and compassion. It has been a great passion of Ms. Archer’s to provide inspirational, holistic, and aesthetic training for her students. Her choreography and classes emphasize a strong, technical base while cultivating a fusion of ballet, jazz, and modern movement to create work that is thought-provoking, soul-stirring, transcendent and ultimately speaks to the human condition. She also feels the importance of fostering the creative soul within her students in order to develop their own voices to communicate through intentional movement. She is blessed to be able to do what she loves so much and to pass along what she has learned on her journey as an artist, dancer, choreographer, and educator.

Kelly has a burning passion for the arts and believes they hold a power that can heal, transform, and bring beauty into our world. This passion extends to nurturing the artist’s heart as she believes this is ultimately where all great art is conceived.